SJA News

Seventeen St. Johnsbury Academy math students were awarded certificates of merit for ranking in the top-ten percent of all students from across the state, the highest number of any Vermont high school. Additionally, four students won individual awards: First Prize in Region 2 was awarded to Sung-Woo Jang, Second Prize was awarded to Ziqi Gong and Zeou Wei, and Hanzhang Yu won 6th place in the state overall for the second year in a row, and was the top-scoring student in the school. Front row, left to right: Hanzhang Zu, Ziqi Gong, Jianing Wu, Jing Hao Lin; middle row, left to right: Liang Zhao, Jiajun Shen, Yichen Lyu, Victor Xie, Sung Woo Jang; Back row, left to right: Zeou Wei, Matthew Hunton, Asher Solnit, Benjamin Hammer, Sihan Dong.

SJA led the state on the UVM Annual Prize Math Examination again this year. Three students received the top-two Vermont Region 2 scores on the UVM High School Prize Math Examination: First Prize was awarded to Sung-Woo Jang '20 and Second Prize was awarded to Ziqi Gong and Zeou Wei. Hanzhang Yu won 6th place in the state overall for the second year in a row, and was the top-scoring student in the school. Seventeen students from the Academy, the highest number for a high school in Vermont, were awarded Certificates of Merit, recognizing their ranking in the top-ten percent of all students from across the state that took the test. They were: Sihan Dong '19 from China, Gavin Ghafoori '21 from St. Johnsbury, Ziqi Gong '18 from China, Benjamin Hammer '18, Yufan Hu '21 from China, Matthew Hunton '18, Sung-Woo Jang '20 from Korea, Jinghao Lin '19 from China, Yichen Lyu '18 from China, Jiajun Shen '19 from China, Asher Solnit '18, Zeou Wei '19 from China, Jianing Wu '19, Victor Xie '18 from China, Daisuke Yamada '19 from Japan, Hanzhang Yu '19 from China, Liang Zhao '20 from China.

Four students were honored at the annual Math Day awards luncheon hosted by the UVM Department of Mathematics and Statistics on May 16: Sung Woo Jang for winning First Prize in the region; Ziqi Gong and Zeou Wei for winning Second Prize in the region, and Hanzhang Yu for winning 6th place in the state overall.

According to the University of Vermont website, "The High School Prize Examination, administered by members of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UVM, is one of the longest running annual high school mathematics contests in the US." The competition consists of forty-one questions encompassing number theory, algebra, and geometry. The questions must be answered without the aid of technology and must be completed in a two-hour time period.

Sharon Fadden, Chair of the SJA Mathematics Department, said, "It is exciting to see so many of our students demonstrate proficiency and mastery of our course concepts on this challenging exam. All were able to successfully apply multiple strategies of the problem-solving process."

Academy Headmaster Tom Lovett said, "Under Sharon's leadership, our math department has gained international notoriety, and we are pleased to see a mixture of international and local students excelling at the highest levels here by working together. For so many reasons, I am proud of what these students have accomplished!"